Mackinlay’s "The Enduring Spirit" Scotch 1907 Recreation

Mackinlay’s “The Enduring Spirit” Scotch 1907 Recreation

What? A stunning recreation of a whisky found buried in the ice in Antarctica is now available at Wine World & Spirits, the best place in Seattle to buy Scotch in Seattle! Check out this hard to find Scotch that just came in! Mackinlay’s Blended Malt Scotch Whisky “The Enduring Spirit” is here. Richard Paterson, the Master Blender at Whyte & Mackay in Glasgow, Scotland has certainly outdone himself lately. He has masterfully scoured the whisky supplies of Scotland to make the Ernest Shackleton 1907 Recreation. The original whisky dates back to 1907 and provides for a rare glimpse into what whisky tasted like over 100 years ago!

The History:

Sir Ernest Shackleton was an explorer from the 19th century set on exploring the South Pole. He made three expeditions total. His most famous was his the third expedition, where he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, in 1914–17. Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed. There followed a sequence of exploits, and an ultimate escape with no loss of human life, that would eventually assure Shackleton’s heroic status. Modern day books and even a movie have chronicled the event.

More important to us whisky lovers was his second expedition dubbed the Nimrod Expedition after his ship at the time. The year was 1909 and Shackleton with three companions established a base camp at Cape Royds. It is there that they buried many of their provisions before marching towards the south pole… including several cases of brandy and scotch whisky. Their march to the pole was cut short by a shortage of food and they all barely returned back to the ship in time to sail out before the ice sheets closed them in. As they were in a serious hurry to make it out, they left their base camp and remaining provisions behind. Today, the base camp remains intact and is a historical landmark preserved by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZAHT).

In 2010, NZAHT was doing restoration work on the base camp to ensure its preservation. While pulling up some of the floor boards to be replaced, they discovered three cases of Mackinlay’s Scotch Whisky that had been there undisturbed for a century. While the Mackinlay’s brand no longer exists, the parent company Whyte & Mackay still does. NZAHT gave some of the whisky to museums, auctioned some of the bottles to private collectors, and sent some of them back to Whyte & Mackay for history to be recreated.

The Whisky:

The first Recreation consisted of 50,000 bottles that sold out worldwide in a record setting matter of months! With such a massive response, it was dubbed the “whisky story of the century” and even National Geographic did a 60 minute special on the recreation. Given the success, NZAHT requested a second run of whisky to be produced by Whyte & Mackay. This is what resulted in “The Enduring Spirit” otherwise known as “The Journey” release.

As you can see, it’s a rich whisky with nice fruity tones to the malt, a healthy oakiness and a nice little peat that compliments the whisky without dominating the flavor profile. Remember that this whisky is a Blended Malt Scotch, not a Blended Scotch. That means that only the best pure pot still, 100% malted barley whisky was used and no light grain whiskies were put into the bottle. The whisky is bottled at 47.3%.

The Enduring Spirit comes in a unique straw wrapper that simulates how the bottles were individually packed when discovered. Also in the box comes a 26-page booklet telling the story of the whisky, a plan of the original base near Cape Royds, maps, a detailed timeline of the expedition, a letter from Ernest Shackleton to his wife from 1908, photographs, and diary extracts from the expedition itself. There is also a hidden bonus that you get, but you need to register your bottle with Whyte & Mackay to find out what it is!

All in all, this is one of the most exclusive releases that Wine World & Spirits has received to date and is a bottle that comes with a substantial history behind it. Beyond that, proceeds from each sale go to support NZAHT with their preservation efforts. Come down to Wine World & Spirits, the best place in Seattle to buy Scotch whisky in Seattle and pick up a piece of history before they are all gone! It’s $225 plus a lot of taxes!